In January 2011 the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Pharmacy Forum (NDPF) webcast its lecture (“What can the GPhC do to you?” by Joy Wingfield) for the first time. This, it seems, is the future of pharmacy learning and networking.
Matthew Boyd, NDPF IT lead, told The Pharmaceutical Journal that interactivity was achieved through a live text web chat function and interactive voting. Slides were provided in advance of the lecture. Shots of both the speaker and the audience helped to create a feeling of being part of the meeting.
“Since the local practice forum covers a huge area, some people might never [physically] come to a meeting. We had online participants from as far as Sheffield and north east Derbyshire. Our next step is to arrange to webcast simultaneous meetings in other locations to preserve face-to-face interaction,” Dr Boyd said.
“Our new webcasting system encourages networking and we would welcome members from other LPFs,” he added. NDPF also includes a significant membership from a student body, with about 150 at a satellite campus in Malaysia, so there are obvious benefits in terms of accessibility.
To view the Pharmaceutical Journal article on-line, please follow the link below:
http://www.pjonline.com/news/pj20110205_future_of_group_learning
Posted on Wednesday 23rd February 2011